Witty Wordsmiths 154

“If a book about failures doesn't sell, is it a success?”

~ Jerry Seinfeld

 

Witty Wordsmiths 149

“For last year's words belong to last year's language, and next year's words await another voice.”

~ T.S. Eliot

Witty Wordsmiths 148

“I'm quite illiterate, but I read a lot.”

~ J.D. Salinger

Witty Wordsmiths 147

“But a mermaid has no tears, and therefore she suffers so much more.”

~ Hans Christian Andersen

 

Witty Wordsmiths 141

“There are no faster or firmer friendships than those formed between people who love the same books.”

~ Irving Stone

 

Witty Wordsmiths 136

“Books have a unique way of stopping time in a particular moment and saying: Let’s not forget this.”

~ Dave Eggers

 

Witty Wordsmiths 129

“Maybe who we are isn't so much about what we do, but rather what we're capable of when we least expect it.”

~ Jodi Picoult

 

Witty Wordsmiths 118

“So I kept reading, just to stay alive. In fact, I'd read two or three books at the same time, so I wouldn't finish one without being in the middle of another―anything to stop me from falling into the big, gaping void. You see, books fill the empty spaces. If I'm waiting for a bus, or am eating alone, I can always rely on a book to keep me company. Sometimes I think I like them even more than people. People will let you down in life. They'll disappoint you and hurt you and betray you. But not books. They're better than life.”

~ Marc Acito

 

Witty Wordsmiths 117

“It is the most fun I’m ever going to have. I love to write. I love it. I mean, there’s nothing in the world I like better, and that includes sex, probably because I’m so very bad at it. It’s the greatest peace when I’m in a scene, and it’s just me and the character, that’s it, that’s where I want to live my life.”

~ Joss Whedon

 

Witty Wordsmiths 116

“Fiction has been maligned for centuries as being "false," "untrue," yet good fiction provides more truth about the world, about life, and even about the reader, than can be found in non-fiction.”

~ Clark Zlotchew

Witty Wordsmiths 115

“Stories never really end...even if the books like to pretend they do. Stories always go on. They don't end on the last page, any more than they begin on the first page.”

~ Cornelia Funke

Witty Wordsmiths 114

“After nourishment, shelter and companionship, stories are the thing we need most in the world.”

~ Philip Pullman

Witty Wordsmiths 109

 

“Writing is a socially acceptable form of schizophrenia.”

~ E.L. Doctorow

Witty Wordsmiths 107

“There's plenty of sense in nonsense sometimes, if you wish to look for it.”

~ Cassandra Clare

Witty Wordsmiths 96

“There is no surer foundation for a beautiful friendship than a mutual taste in literature.”

~ P.G. Wodehouse

I truly believe this quotation holds merit; however, the problem I have with it is that I have not come across one, not one, person who has ever taken to reading and writing like I have throughout my life (besides my Mother, but she doesn't count in these situations, because we are already and always will be best friends, and no, I do not live in my Mother's basement). I have encountered numerous movie and film (in modern usage, there really isn't a difference between these two words other than a technicality, but I choose to use both to distinguish slightly between the the content's intentions) lovers, and so I have learned to satisfy my need to discuss stories through this industry, but at times, the shortcomings of movies and films are painfully obvious.

   Not being able to find someone to discuss novels with from time to time, whether classic or modern, shouldn't really surprise me because I have rarely come across a person who is as curious as I am about things in this world. Throughout an average day, minor things occur, and I really mean minor, and yet, I find myself contemplating them to figure out their origins or motivations, or simply how they occurred. People find me exhausting and I don't blame them, because I exhaust myself, but I truly don't believe I'm an “over-thinker,” because I tend to be aware of when I'm making a situation more complicated than it actually needs to be or wasn't to begin with.

   This lack of these type of friendships, or relationships, is why I eventually began my blogs, because if I couldn't have these types of conversations with actual people, I could at least continue to have them with myself.

Witty Wordsmiths 90

“Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind.”

~ Rudyard Kipling

My interpretation of this quotation is much too involved and lengthy to present in a lowly blog post, but I will try to communicate my position in the most succinct manner as possible.

    To my knowledge the most powerful people in history did not use mind-altering chemical drugs to convince droves of followers to support their chaotic causes. You might consider chemical attacks and poisonous gas deployments as the use of mind-altering chemical drugs, but for the general population not receiving these treatments they produced fear, not behaviors born from modifying a brain's neurological composition. Re-calibrating or re-wiring the brain is the main things drugs do, they alter and transform how brains fire, how brains actually work. And what about the people employing the chemical attacks and poisonous gas? What was used to get them to perform these heinous acts?

  Words. It's really that simple. You might considered monetary gains, gains of power, or other materialistic or authorial gains as the motivations, and you would be right in some cases, but words had to be used to convey these messages to relay the benefits of such actions.

  Words are dangerous. Why else would these powerful people in history burn books, ban literacy among common people, force people to see and hear only what these powerful people deemed appropriate, indoctrinate the young with their ideals and beliefs by simply having them repeat a slogan, a declaration, or an oath over and over on a daily basis? Because words are powerful. They are dangerous. They are a drug. But just as some drugs are used to better our lives, words have the same potential. It just matters what words you choose to hear and say. 

Below is a very poignant example of the potential of words:

The Power of Words

Witty Wordsmiths 86

“I read so I can live more than one life in more than one place.”

~ Anne Tyler

Excerpt from Bad Conversation Topics When Surrounded by Throwable Objects 5  on The Thirsty Spitton:  

Who owns the time to experience everything in life one needs to reach the highest levels of awareness and acceptance to discover happiness? Also, the experiences we endure are singularly limited due to nature, time, and laws and ultimately, although extremely beneficial, life experience does not culminate in an efficient manner to gain awareness and acceptance.

    So how can we acquire life experiences we can never have because of our natures, lack of time, and the fact they might lead us to imprisonment? It is actually an easy and common answer: READING.

    The reason two year olds throw tantrums is not because they are immature or too young to understand what they want, because many adults I know throw similar tantrums when life does not transpire the way they desire it to as well. These tantrums stem from a two year old’s lack of vocabulary, the lack of the ability to express his/her emotions with the proper, specific words. Enter Reading: Reading builds our vocabularies so we will not become frustrated when trying to help someone understand our feelings, or more importantly, help us understand our feelings. 

    Reading breeds thinking. With the vocabulary we acquire from reading, we can now practice higher level thinking, thinking about everything from what to say in a stressful situation to how to approach the cashier to coax him into the backroom to retrieve the item not on the shelf but you know is stored on a shelf in the back of the store. I know if you are alive, you think, but how many times have you uttered the phrases, "I just can't explain it," "I don't know how to tell you what I mean," "I know how I'm feeling, but I just can't find the words to make it make sense," or any such variety?

    Thinking breeds writing, but maybe not with a pen or pencil or other writing tool (although physical writing is worth its weight in gold), but with our minds, because now we have the ability to organize our thoughts into viable, tangible efforts of our labors. We can study our thoughts (or physical writing), rethink, and form logical conclusions about the thoughts preceding our efforts. 

Witty Wordsmiths 83

“No book is really worth reading at the age of ten which is not equally–and often far more–worth reading at the age of fifty and beyond.”

~ C.S. Lewis

I was already way into my thirties when I came across this little wise piece of thought from the writer of one of my all-time favorite books series', The Chronicles of Narnia. I often reread the novels from my childhood, especially the adventures in Narnia, and this quotation validated my behavior. Even as an adult, these stories still deliver the same wide-eyed fantasy and hope they instilled in me as a child. I own many copies of each of my childhood favorites, in a vain hope someone would ever ask to borrow them one day (but it appears the people in my immediate circles to not have the passion for reading as I possess), and the copies I read the most are warn, with whitened patches on the covers, some pages loose (if a paperback copy), and I value each and every one of their signs of aging and repeated use. Maybe it's the nostalgia of youth or the brief moment of not having responsibilities again, but reading my childhood favorites will always be a favorite pastime. 

        I wholeheartedly agree with Lewis' assessment of a story and it's value at any age, because any good story should ring differently during different times of our lives. If we haven't changed, grown, or matured, a story will simply be the same story we read years ago, but if we come to a story with a different set of eyes, more wise with experience and age, a story will ring with a new zest, a new situation to analyze, a new fantasy, helping us grow yet again.

Witty Wordsmiths 80

“That is part of the beauty of all literature. You discover that your longings are universal longings, that you're not lonely and isolated from anyone. You belong.”

~ F. Scott Fitzgerald

Any random thought, maybe devious, maybe unwholesome, maybe questionably immoral or unethical, maybe unpracticed, maybe apparently logical to you, or any other thought forcing you to question your humanity, reading allows you to see you share the world of your mind with others. No matter what daunting problem, random issue, irritating condition, insurmountable situation, debilitating disease, or chronic affliction you are enduring or have endured, when you read you realize there are countless others who have invariably endured the equivalent or, by chance, worse. No matter what heinous act, unforgivable behavior, untraditional or unaccepted exploit you might partake, you will find other poor souls guilty of each and every one of them, and sometimes with even graver outcomes than you could have ever imagined. 

    Writers write to explain the human condition through their eyes, to teach or inform or attempt change, while entertaining with silver words and rosy phrases, so when you decide to read, you most certainly, dear reader, are not alone.

Witty Wordsmiths 79

“In the case of good books, the point is not to see how many of them you can get through, but rather how many can get through to you.”

~ Mortimer J. Adler